The war of words between player-turned-pundit Gary Neville and Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius has forced Reds manager Jurgen Klopp to have his say on the matter.
The 23-year-old shot stopper has came under some criticism from the dynamic duo of punditry Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville, after his late mistake against Bournemouth cost Liverpool the game.
While Karius was accepting of Carragher’s input, he stated he didn’t care about what Neville had to say. The Englishman responded with a sarcastic Instagram update, and now Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has gotten involved in the act.
The German manager has hit out at Neville, and even brought up his failed stint at Valencia last season.
“I’m not surprised about it (the criticism),” said Klopp, according to the Daily Mail.
“In my first press conference I spoke about English media, and the pundits, the former players, forgot completely how it felt when they get criticised.
“Especially the Neville brothers. I have to say the one who was a manager, he obviously should know that too much criticism never helps but he’s not interested in a helping a Liverpool player I can imagine.
“But that makes the things he says not more sensible. He showed he struggled with a job to judge players, why we let them talk about players on television?”
Klopp then took a jibe at Neville’s habits on social media, advising the former United full-back to not to look for him on Twitter because he didn’t have an account.
Neville may not have has a successful stint as a manager, but he is widely renowned as one of the better pundits in the business today. His assessment of Karius seemed to be without malice, but it looks like things have escalated since the comments made after the Reds loss to Bournemouth.
Part of the reason for this could be the animosity between Liverpool and Manchester United, with the two being traditional rivals. However, criticism of players by pundits is not really shocking, since it’s what pundits are paid to do.
Loris Karius also didn’t do himself any favours with a poor performance against West Ham this past weekend.